HI FAMILY :)
I have something really interesting to tell you. Today, the first real zombie apocalypse happened, right here in Peru. But don´t worry, we´re just hanging out in a nice little internet cafe, the door is wide open, but we´re safe. People are evacuating and stuff, but we´ll get to that eventually.
I bet I gotcha, right? Don´t worry, there wasn´t really a zombie apocalypse. But pretty close.
So today, we were taking the bus to the internet cafe, just like every other Monday. In the morning on Mondays, or any other day really, there´s a lot of traffic, and since there´s like 3 traffic rules, it sometimes takes a while to get anywhere. But today, it was taking FOREVER. We literally weren´t moving, and people were just going crazy. Our district leader called to ask where we were, and he told us that traffic everywhere was completely stopped so we should just get out and walk. As we were walking down the street, we were looking around and it literally looked exactly like the first episode of Walking Dead, when everyone was trying to flee the city, but they abandoned their cars because of the huge mass of people. Most people here travel by bus, and everyone had gotten off the buses and started running down the street. Hermana Mack is also a huge fan of Walking Dead, so we just started freaking out, pretending like the zombie apocalypse that we have been waiting for had finally come. (Seriously, it was weird, we were freaking out and pretending that the people around us were zombies. I took a video, and in roughly one year I will show it to you.) Eventually, it started getting weird, because at first, everyone was yelling and shouting at each other to move, people running down the streets, but then all of a sudden, it got super quiet. We were walking, and there was just no one around us. People literally abandoned their cars, and for a minute we really believed the zombie thing, but then we kind of got scared because we had no idea what was going on, but everyone else seemed to have understood already. So we asked a guy in the street, expecting to hear the worst (my mind went to some crazy places), but he told us there was just some huge protest about water going on. So, not the end of the world or a terrorist attack or anything like that, but still a little concerning. I don´t really know what´s going on, but no one is freaking out about it. I think people were just freaking out because they didn´t know. But now that they know, they´re just peeved that they couldn´t get where they were going on time. That was todays first adventure, and it´s only 10:40!
So this week was pretty great. I wanted to tell you something cool that has been happening lately. When I first came to Cieneguilla, our area was just like a field ready to be harvested. Seriously. It had hardly been touched, and so we basically just jumped right in. One thing that we are taught to do is talk with everyone, and that´s basically what we do. We talk to the people in the buses, while we walking in the street, in stores...we talk to a lot of people. It´s probably the most intimidating part of the mission. In our book that we read, "Preach my Gospel", it literally tells you to talk to everyone you see. I hated that at first, and I didn´t really like to put myself out there and talk in my broken Spanish. But Hermana Mack and I have been really working on that, and now we just can´t shut up! Anyway, so this week we really have seen the fruits of that. We taught lots of people that we met just talking to them in the street or in the bus. I´m going to tell you about a few of them ..
LUIS. Luis is this awesome older guy that we met, and when I invited him to church he just got so excited. He was like "Yeah sure I´ll go! I just need a white shirt and a tie, right? I´ll bring my Bible too!" He was so excited. When we went to teach him for the first time, it was such a powerful hour of my life. He is one of the most ready people I´ve ever met. Ready as in ready to receive this gospel. But he just opened up to us about his life, about how he´s lived alone for years because after all of his kids moved out, his wife died. He has had cancer and heart problems, lots jobs and been left to struggle on basically nothing. His church kicked him out and told him not to come back. His life has been full of some really, really hard times. While he was talking, I couldn´t believe what I was hearing, while I was simultaneously seeing that he looked so content. He has lived such a hard life, but he still just has this faith in the Lord. He was so happy that we came, and just kept thanking us. He said "I´m just so happy. I don´t feel alone anymore." We offered to come back this week with some members to help him clean his house (because that was one thing he said he really wanted, and since his wife died, it´s just gotten worse and worse), and when we offered that, he was so grateful that he was emotional, tears in his eyes and everything. It was the sweetest thing I´ve ever seen. I don´t really know how to explain it, but while we were sitting there, I felt really strongly that this man is one of the reasons why God wanted me to come to Peru. For something, God wanted me to be able to meet this man. I don´t know how to explain that, or why I felt that, but I just know that this was not just some coincidence, and I felt that so strongly as we talked to him. I will surely have more news about him in the coming weeks!
Miguel y Juilana. This sweet, humble couple that we met in the street. We were lost, looking for a different house, and they helped us figure it out, so naturally we invited them to come to church. They told us we could come and visit them, so we went this week and it was really similar to what happened with Luis. They just opened up to us, told us all about how difficult their lives have been, and were just so receptive to the things we told them. It was so sweet, the two little boys were so excited (or possibly just really freaked out) that we were there, they were running around outside just jumping around and squeeling. The other kid, a teenager, sat and listened to what we were saying, and even though he didn´t say much, he seemed really interested and nodded his head a lot. (That´s a good sign, right?) They verily happily accepted a return visit and we are super excited to teach them.
There are just some moments when I feel like God puts certain people in our path. Not so that WE can necessarily do something great for that person, but so that we can be the means by which His children finally come to know Him. He´s just waiting for us to finally get the picture, listen to Him, then go talk to His children, so that THEY can receive all the blessings that are waiting for them and come to know HOW MUCH He loves them. That´s how I felt about these people this week.
Things are really great out here. I can´t believe I´ve already passed my 6 month mark. I feel like the time just flies out here. We are working hard and seeing lots of miracles, but heaven knows we need to work harder. The good news is that February is the hottest month of the year down here... super excited for that one :)
Just so you know, half of my zone are American, and they ALL literally laughed at me for what happened with the Broncos. What a tragedy. I colored my agenda all orange and blue yesterday, all excited and proud of my team all the way on the other side of the equator. Well, we all know it´s because they sacked Tim Tebow. Yes, I do in fact still think he was the better option.
I hope you all have a wonderful week! Know that I love you and think about you and pray about you. Talk to you all soon!
All my love,
Hermana Scott